If you had only one powder

[bob4wd]

Of all the rifle powders available today,if I was limited to just ONE to load the following cast loads, which would be my best bet??
7mm Mauser
3o-o6
45-70
444 Marlin
3o-4o Krag
and maybe 6.5x55 Swede
Only need 100yards accuracy, low velocity, maybe some with gas checks, no other criteria are particularly important.
I happen to have a bunch of surplus WC860, is it any good for stuff like this?
Many thanks, guys.

[fishhawk]

IMR 3031 would be my choice steve k

[Ben]

IMR - 4198 for the calibers you've listed.

Ben

[bruce drake]

Red Dot or Unique. If you shoot a gas-checked bullet there's no problem with shooting the pistol/shotgun powder with lead. low powder weight usually gives you several hundred shots per pound of powder.

[NSP64]

+1 for Reddot. I use it fot .270,30-06,12ga,45ACP,38spl.

[MtGun44]

Unique. 10 -15 gr will get you just what you asked for, very low cost per shot, too.

Bill

[dromia]

Vihtavuori N350 or N110 for little bit more poke.

WC860 is a powder I have no experience of but from what I read here it is a slow powder, probably better for higher velocity loads.

I'd go for something a bit faster for the preformance parameters you've defined.

[Andy_P]

Sr-4759

[Tim357]

IMR 3031 or W748

[James C. Snodgrass]

A 200 gr lee gc out of my 24' barrelled 30/06 gets 2200 fps with as much WC 860 as I can get in it about 63 to 65 grs and a mag cap . I does shoot a little dirty but not to bad . It has shot about MOA out of 3 rifles . As far as the other powder of choice H-4895 it is very versatile .

[Shiloh]

Sr4759

SR 7641

Clone of SR 4759

Shiloh

[sundog]

Shiloh, SR7641, since you mentioned it, works very well in single shot competition in several calibers 25 through 32. I had a report from an attendee at last weekend's shoot in Mena, Arkansas, that was very favorable. I've been using it in 32-40 with a 200 grain breech seat with acceptable results.

[sheepdog]

Of all the rifle powders available today,if I was limited to just ONE to load the following cast loads, which would be my best bet??
7mm Mauser
3o-o6
45-70
444 Marlin
3o-4o Krag
and maybe 6.5x55 Swede
Only need 100yards accuracy, low velocity, maybe some with gas checks, no other criteria are particularly important.
I happen to have a bunch of surplus WC860, is it any good for stuff like this?
Many thanks, guys.

Red dot, 13 grain "The Load". Hands down

[wrcook]

I am partial to 2400, i use it for my 30-06, 30-40, 7mm, and other military rounds. I don't know anything about the 444 Marlin, and I only use Holy Black in my 45-70

[Larry Gibson]

bob4wd

Given your criteria of; "[B] Only need 100yards accuracy, low velocity, maybe some with gas checks, no other criteria are particularly important.[/B"]

Most of the choices given fit that criteria with 4759 probably being the best suited for all the cartridges listed. It would be my choice given your limited criteria with Unique being the second choice if PB cast bullets are used.

Larry Gibson

[runfiverun]

for your criteria i am thinking 2400 would be fairly ideal followed by the unique for the 45-70 and 444.

[Doc Highwall]

My vote goes for AA5744.

[bob4wd]

And the winner is----------------- Unique! Or maybe 2400! But since I've got a pound or two of unique in the cabinet, it's what I'll try first. Thanks all for the good inputs, although I've got to say I would never have even considered using a shotgun/pistol powder for these fairly large rifle cases.
Which leads to another question: if red Dot and Unique are usable in these cases, why couldn't such pistol powders as Accurate 2or 5 or Win231 or even Bullseye or even Titegroup work? Why not?? (as you might guess, I've lots of these on hand, too)

[MtGun44]

The faster powders DO work, but they build pressure really fast, so they need to be kept
very low to stay safe in these large cases. Unique and Red Dot have LOTS of history of
being safe and not doing anything weird (other than shooting AMAZINGLY accurately) in
just about any of the 20th century milsurp bottleneck cartridges in the 10 gr Unique load. You
can add a bit more, up to around 15 gr in most of the larger cases like .30-06 and .45-70
and .30-40, etc. I am not personally as familiar with the RDot loads, but they
are well established as safe and accurate. Search the web for cast load data by
E. H. Harrison, who did a lot of wonderful work with Red Dot and cast for the NRA, it is
commonly on various sites out there, and I'm certain somewhere on this site, too.

Bill

[Jack Stanley]

I've been really happy using Unique or even Universal Clays in those rounds and either of them would be my choice . I used to use Red Dot but I don't use the shotgun much anymore so I don't have any around .

Hmmmm...... I do have several pounds of International Clays I could try

My 1903 seems to love any lead bullet near two hundred grains and only uses around eleven grains of Unique to drive them into small groups . Might be a lot of drop at a hundred yards though .

Jack